Anyone who has known me for even a small amount of time will have deduced that I am a Cat Person.  It’s not that I don’t like dogs, I’m sure they are charming in their way, but I have always felt an affinity with cats – their cold disdain, love of warm naps and occasional bouts of insanity.  I had always assumed that my two cats, Tabbie and Lulu, while disliking one another, had, at least, a passing fondness for me…. Read more »

Let me preface this post by stating for the record that I am a happily married woman of 17 years standing.  If I thought that I would have to enter the dating circus again, I would probably “get me to a nunnery”.  Having said that, I feel that I must get something off my chest. Metaphorically speaking. Obviously. So, if you’ll indulge me…I was watching a recording of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” the other day – as I am… Read more »

Now that Halloween is behind us, I thought that it would be fun to introduce you, gentle reader, to a very British autumnal celebration – Bonfire Night (aka Guy Fawkes Night). Every year on November 5th, bonfires are lit – from small backyards to large community affairs – and fireworks set off, to commemorate an unlucky would-be terrorist and his part in The Gunpowder Plot of 1605. “Whaat?” I hear my non-British friends cry, “Explain please!” Oh, all right then! Sit back,… Read more »

For the final post in my “Halloween” series; I thought that I would discuss the three movies which I think are among the scariest of all time: “The Wicker Man” (1973); “Poltergeist” (1982) and, Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece, “The Shining” (1980). Maybe I’m just getting old, but in the days before CGI, film-makers really had to work to make their movies authentically scary.  You couldn’t just put an actor in front of a green screen and ask them to emote terror against… Read more »

It may seem odd to some, but I have always found cemeteries to be calming and relaxing places. No matter how noisy the traffic on the outside, as soon as you step over the threshold all sound becomes muted, as if in reverence. When I was growing up, my home was not always the most peaceful or relaxing place, and many a weekend afternoon, I would walk the 10 minutes or so to the nearby graveyard to wander, or just sit and… Read more »